Judge causes stir at AgFest

STOCKTON - This little piggy went to the market. This little piggy stayed home.

Kevin Parrish

STOCKTON - This little piggy went to the market. This little piggy stayed home.

Stop right there with the early 18th century English nursery rhyme.

Twenty-nine pigs won't be up for sale Saturday at the AgFest Junior Livestock and Auction.

They weren't market ready, according to judging earlier this week at the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds. And that has stirred up emotions.

"I'm disappointed with the judge's decision," said Tralynn Simerley, a 14-year-old sophomore at Weston Ranch High School. "I'm not angry. It's just not fair."

Tralynn's pig, Lola, is one of the 29. Tralynn is a member of the Weston Ranch FFA Club. This is her first year in the swine competition.

AgFest, a one-year gathering of the farm community, has been designed as a bridge between a struggling 2013 county fair and a reconstituted event next year.

A highlight on Thursday was the costume contest, where the contestants - human and animal - got to let their hair (and manes and whatever) down and just be in the moment.

AgFest continues with competition today and concludes with a livestock auction Saturday.

"I'll be there," Simerley said. "I'm staying to support others. There's nothing I can do. Things happen. I can't make a big deal out of it. It's important to move forward."

Others weren't so gracious.

Social media lit up Wednesday, the day after swine judge David M. Lopes, 52, deemed 29 pigs out of 370 entered unfit for market. Parents complained that their children's pigs met weight requirements and that disqualifications were rare.

"It is a learning thing," said Bonner Murphy, 48, an AgFest organizer and spokeswoman. "Mr. Lopes is highly qualified. It kills him more than anyone else. It's not a fun job. Nobody wants to tell a kid that their animal is not market ready."

Lopes, an animal-science instructor at Reedley Junior College near Fresno, is a six-year board member of the California Pork Producers Association.

Judges are required to follow regulations established by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

AgFest also produced a 25-page guide book filled with rules. The published parameters for swine competition:

» Market ready: US No. 1 and US No. 2 hogs of average or greater conformation that are acceptable in leanness, muscularity and production traits are eligible for sale.

» Not market ready: Any hog of below-average conformation and/or muscling including US No. 3, US No. 4 and utility grade hogs. Not eligible for sale.

Lathrop High junior Jennifer Homer is in her second year of swine competition. Her pig, Apollo, qualified as market ready, but she had understood the rules and knew what she needed to do to prepare for AgFest.

The two friends, along with Jennifer's sister, 18-year-old Trina Homer, agreed that a strange, inexplicable bond occurs between pigs and their owners. All three are members of the Lathrop High FFA Club.

"I'm gonna cry at the auction," Trina admitted. "Pigs are kind of like puppies. They have their own personality. They come when you call them. You build a relationship."

She named her pig "Boss Hog."

Tralynn agreed.

"Pigs are so sweet," she said. "They know your scent, your voice. You both pick up traits of one another."

More than 1,200 animals filled the pens at the back of the fairgrounds, and organizers expect 800 animals of all breeds to sell at auction.

On Thursday, 17-year-old Audrianna Azevedo of Acampo was showing breeding poultry. Two days earlier, the St. Mary's High School senior was crowned queen of the festival.